Production Equipment A wide variety of production equipment is now available to schools. Ultimately the quality of your production depends as much on technique and attention to detail as it does to equipment but it is important to have dependable equipment that meets the needs of your particular type of production. Below is a list of equipment that will prove helpful for most types of production. (Important Note- By listing specific equipment here, I am not endorsing these particular products. Many similar pieces of equipment would do the same job as well or better. These are simply the pieces I used while creating the sample EFT and wiki):
Video Camera- several kinds of name brand cameras can meet your production needs. Some features to look for in a full function camera are:
microphone-in port (allows an external microphone to be plugged in)
earphone-out port (allows you to monitor the audio being captured)
flash/hard drive memory (if you already have a mini-dv tape machine in good
still photo capture
a good zoom lens (the greater the optical vs. digital zoom ratio the better the image)
I used several video cameras when creating my sample video for this workshop (The EFT to the Garden). I do not recommend this normally. I did it for two reasons. First the initial USB camera I was using was not powerful enough to suit my needs. Secondly I wanted to show the differences in quality and the versatility of editing software. Some of these cameras were the inexpensive USB types plus one higher quality full function camera. The information seen here is not an endorsement of these particular products but I am showing them to give you an idea of the broad range of types of equipment you can use for this kind of classroom production.
Canon FS 200: This is a full function video camera with all the prerequisites I mentioned such as microphone and earphone ports, photo still capture, and a good telephoto zoom lens. It is a hard drive camera, saving everything to an SD card.
FlipVideo: Although this camera has been discontinued, a lot of schools are still using them. This is a small USB drive camera, great for easily moving video very quickly from the camera to your computer. These kinds of cameras are becoming more powerful all the time and some can now shoot in HD. The one I used does not, but the video looks pretty good. Audio is limited to the built-in mic. with no microphone or earphone port. It does have an AV cable to allow you to show video on a monitor. This camera also has built-in software which allows for simple editing of its output.
iDevices and "Smart" phones: Of course now, a variety of iDevices such as the iPad shown here, have cameras with the capability of shooting either still or full motion video. The quality of images varies greatly with the device and with most, zooming ability is still very limited. Shown here is an iPad with a special mounting device for attaching to a tripod. This is a great help as iPads especially are somewhat awkward (I think at least) to hold and shoot "shake-free" video. See all the benefits of using a tripod below. There are now microphones and other "production" attachments that can be purchased for an iPad as well.
Regarding shooting with a camera on a smart phone, the main thing is to make sure that the "format" of the video files is such that you can edit it later if you wish and that you can easily upload it to whatever social media you plan to use for sharing it. Also these devices allow you to shoot in either a "portrait" or "landscape" format. If you plan to possibly edit your video later, then try and shoot it in landscape format as it is accepted more widely and readily by editing software packages.
Tripod- a tripod can greatly improve the quality of your shots and increase the safety of the camera. It also becomes the "proxy videographer" on solo shoots where you need to be in front of the camera as talent. A good tripod such as the one shown below has the following features:
fluid head
bubble level
quick release removable plate/shoe to attach camera to tripod. Note: Although the removable plate is very handy, they are notorious for getting lost so keep an close eye on yours.
Smith-Victor Tripod (shown) :The bolts that attach the removable plate/shoe to the camera vary. Some have a little flip down grip that you can use to hand tighten them onto the camera. This particular tripod uses a coin slot bolt which isn't quite as convenient. Be careful with either kind of bolt not to over- tighten them as it can damage the camera. I like that this tripod has a carrying handle which makes it easy to tote.
Still Camera- Many people are not aware of the value of good still photos in production. Stills are great to use in montages, for establishing shots, and for capturing stunning images without using as much disk or computer memory as full motion video. If you are using an inexpensive USB video camera without much zoom capability, a still camera can help you get high quality close-ups that will bring the appearance of your video up a notch. And for your website, stills have all kinds of applications and can really make your site pop!
Kodak Easyshare Z650 Camera: For most of my work on this wiki and it's components I used this older, relatively inexpensive Kodak point-and-shoot camera which has a built-in 10x optical zoom. As mentioned earlier, you want to pay more attention to the power of the optical zoom rather than the digital zoom for high quality images. Of course if you can get your hands on an SLR (single lens reflex) digital camera then you can really get great images with their more powerful memory and telephoto lenses plus lots of other neat features! I also used the still photo feature of my Canon FS200 to take some stills (such as this one of the Easyshare!)
Flickr Creative Commons license by visual.dichotomy
External Microphone: I don't have an specific microphone pictured here. At KET we use a couple of different brands such as Electro-Voice and Shure, but there are several good brands out there. If your video camera has a port for it, an external microphone can really help your sound quality. Think of it as your "zoom lens" for sound. It lets you get right up close to your audio source and excludes more of the distracting background (ambient) sounds than your camera's built- in mic. In an situation such as an "over-the-shoulder" interview, this kind of mic. is a must for getting close enough to the talent. One tip: If you don't have access to an external microphone, then physically move your video camera as close to the source of the sound as possible, but of course not so close that you can't get the type of shot that you need visually. So move close and zoom out instead of standing across the room from the subject zooming in!
Beachtek DXA-2S Audio Mixer:
Although not absolutely neccessary to your production, a small mixer such as this one is very helpful for several reasons. First of all it is compact and actually fits between a camera and tripod. It easily converts a video camera's single mic. input into two mic. inputs. It also helps in another way. The mini-mic, input on the camera is easily worn out by the repeated movement of a microphone cable hooked into it. However, this mixer takes the strain off that small input since the large mic . cables hook into the XLR ports in the front of the mixer instead of directly into the camera.
Production Equipment
A wide variety of production equipment is now available to schools. Ultimately the quality of your production depends as much on technique and attention to detail as it does to equipment but it is important to have dependable equipment that meets the needs of your particular type of production. Below is a list of equipment that will prove helpful for most types of production. (Important Note- By listing specific equipment here, I am not endorsing these particular products. Many similar pieces of equipment would do the same job as well or better. These are simply the pieces I used while creating the sample EFT and wiki):
Video Camera- several kinds of name brand cameras can meet your production needs. Some features to look for in a full function camera are:
- microphone-in port (allows an external microphone to be plugged in)
- earphone-out port (allows you to monitor the audio being captured)
- flash/hard drive memory (if you already have a mini-dv tape machine in good
- still photo capture
- a good zoom lens (the greater the optical vs. digital zoom ratio the better the image)
I used several video cameras when creating my sample video for this workshop (The EFT to the Garden). I do not recommend this normally. I did it for two reasons. First the initial USB camera I was using was not powerful enough to suit my needs. Secondly I wanted to show the differences in quality and the versatility of editing software. Some of these cameras were the inexpensive USB types plus one higher quality full function camera. The information seen here is not an endorsement of these particular products but I am showing them to give you an idea of the broad range of types of equipment you can use for this kind of classroom production.Regarding shooting with a camera on a smart phone, the main thing is to make sure that the "format" of the video files is such that you can edit it later if you wish and that you can easily upload it to whatever social media you plan to use for sharing it. Also these devices allow you to shoot in either a "portrait" or "landscape" format. If you plan to possibly edit your video later, then try and shoot it in landscape format as it is accepted more widely and readily by editing software packages.
- fluid head
- bubble level
- quick release removable plate/shoe to attach camera to tripod. Note: Although the removable plate is very handy, they are notorious for getting lost so keep an close eye on yours.
Smith-Victor Tripod (shown) :The bolts that attach the removable plate/shoe to the camera vary. Some have a little flip down grip that you can use to hand tighten them onto the camera. This particular tripod uses a coin slot bolt which isn't quite as convenient. Be careful with either kind of bolt not to over- tighten them as it can damage the camera. I like that this tripod has a carrying handle which makes it easy to tote.I also used the still photo feature of my Canon FS200 to take some stills (such as this one of the Easyshare!)
I don't have an specific microphone pictured here. At KET we use a couple of different brands such as Electro-Voice and Shure, but there are several good brands out there. If your video camera has a port for it, an external microphone can really help your sound quality. Think of it as your "zoom lens" for sound. It lets you get right up close to your audio source and excludes more of the distracting background (ambient) sounds than your camera's built- in mic. In an situation such as an "over-the-shoulder" interview, this kind of mic. is a must for getting close enough to the talent. One tip: If you don't have access to an external microphone, then physically move your video camera as close to the source of the sound as possible, but of course not so close that you can't get the type of shot that you need visually. So move close and zoom out instead of standing across the room from the subject zooming in!
Although not absolutely neccessary to your production, a small mixer such as this one is very helpful for several reasons. First of all it is compact and actually fits between a camera and tripod. It easily converts a video camera's single mic. input into two mic. inputs. It also helps in another way. The mini-mic, input on the camera is easily worn out by the repeated movement of a microphone cable hooked into it. However, this mixer takes the strain off that small input since the large mic . cables hook into the XLR ports in the front of the mixer instead of directly into the camera.